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Fallacies from Chapter 3 - 5469

Fallacies Exercises - Ch. 3

INSTRUCTIONS: Name the most prominent fallacy and give a brief explanation. Write down your answers and then see next page for my answers. PLEASE DO NOT GO TO THE NEXT PAGE UNTIL YOU HAVE WRITTEN DOWN YOUR ANSWERS TO THIS EXERCISE!


1. My plumber friend says that environmentalism is a disease and he knows about these kinds of things.

2. Whatever is less dense than water will float, because such objects won’t sink in water.

3.Either we have prayer in the schools or we become just like the Russians.

4.John thinks we should spend less on defense. Apparently, he thinks nobody will ever attack us, so we don’t need any military protection.

5. You know why this restaurant is so expensive? Probably because it’s not that cheap.

6. If you don’t take the next job that comes along then you’ll have to go on food stamps.

7. Senator Hatch: “Capital punishment is our society’s recognition of the sanctity of life.”

8. It’s not that fallacies are hard to understand, it’s just that comprehending them is difficult.

9. I don’t give opinions about schools politics, but I do think President Agrella is wrong on whether faculty internal affairs should be abolished.

10. Jennifer is against legalizing marijuana. She probably thinks that anything that is fun is sinful.

11. There isn’t a person around who would doubt that unquestioned support guarantees you friendship.

12. President Johnson believed that civil rights was morally wrong but then years later changed his mind after much reflection on the subject.

13. People who support welfare programs seem to think that it is beneath the dignity of people on welfare to do the same kinds of menial jobs that many of us had to do.

14. Sam: “Seattle will be the strongest team at running the football next year, at least in the AFC.”
Jeff: “What makes you think so?”
Sam: “ It’s just the other teams, however good they may be, will be unable to produce the same effectiveness at running the ball that we’ll see with Seattle.”

15. You should support the nuclear freeze. Paul Newman is in favor of it.

16. John: “If Ben doesn’t stop harassing me, I’m going to bust his head in.”
Mark (speaking to Ben later): “John said he was going to bust your head in.”

17. Patient: “Dr. Smith, what’s causing the bleeding inside of my eye?’
Dr. Smith: “spontaneous hemorrhaging”.

18. Politician: “NAFTA is working. 300,000 jobs have been created.”

19. What do you mean, I didn’t help you with the chores. I took out the garbage in the kitchen.

20. From a survey: The majority of Doctors think that the morals of our young people have declined.

21. That Saddam Hussein is a bad person. In fact, people from Iraq are just born bad.

22. If a software program is created by Microsoft, then it must be good. Why? Because Microsoft creates only good programs.

23. Advertisement: “If you know about BMW, you either own one or you want one.”

24. “Senator, if you the think that the CIA has been engaging in torture, why don’t we get the Director to testify at this hearing and find out if the rumors about widespread torture are really true.

25. Student: “How are you going to help me pass this class?”
Teacher: “I have to ensure that every student in this class has every opportunity to succeed to the best of their abilities.